Chapter 206: Traitors (7)
Thus began the luring operation. While Luka sent a false report to the masked freaks, Yurina and I arrived early at the designated spot, where we intended to lure them in, and waited for their arrival.
Suddenly, Yurina turned to me. “N-no.”
“Huh? What?”
Her face flushed a bright, burning red, and it looked as if she would burst into tears at any moment. “I-I didn’t buy it! That underwear from earlier!”
I forced an awkward smile as I patted her trembling shoulder. “Hey, calm down. It’s not like I even saw it.”
It was true. I hadn’t seen the sexy underwear she supposedly bought. Yurina had dashed forward like lightning and snatched the shopping bag away before Ren could even take the panties out of it.
She explained, “T-the salesperson insisted that I had to buy it! That’s the only reason! I was basically forced into it!”
“Okay, okay, I get it.”
Comforting the sniffling Yurina, I looked around. We were near an abandoned building on the outskirts of the slums. It was a place where no one lived. We didn’t have to worry about collateral damage even if the fight got intense.
Yurina finally sighed. “Haah!”
“Feel a little calmer now?” I asked.
“Y-yeah. Sorry. I shouldn’t be acting like this right before something important.”
Yurina smacked her cheeks, then followed my lead, scanning the surroundings. She tapped the ground with the tip of her shoe and carefully checked the terrain.
To others, it could look like she was just idly glancing around, but this was an important part of preparing for battle. Inspecting the landscape, the footing, and the hardness of the ground was essential.
“This spot is good. Not too open... But not cramped either.”
It was a perfect location for fighting multiple opponents with your back to the wall.
“Dale, what do you think those masked demons want?”
“No idea.”
Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to guess their purpose.
“Nothing like this happened in your past life?”
“It might have. But even if it did, I wouldn’t have known. Forget undercover missions, I wasn’t even aware of suspicious demon groups appearing in Valhalla City.”
In my previous life, I didn’t have any connection to Headmaster Ryu or even Professor Baldwin.
Realizing what kind of cadet I had been in my past life, Yurina let out a small sigh. “Ah! It still doesn’t feel real that you used to be the lowest-ranked cadet.”
“I still am.”
Yurina laughed. “Right, you are.”
After a moment, she said, “You must’ve worked incredibly hard to become this strong.”
“I didn’t do it alone. I already told you, didn’t I?”
You were there. Because you were there, I could become who I am.
Yurina looked at me silently for a long moment before a faint smile spread across her lips. “It’s the same for me. I... became who I am now because I had you.”
She brushed her hand over the sword at her waist and spoke quietly. “Dale, can I... fight alone this time?”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”
“I want to show you. Just how strong I’ve become, thanks to you.”
Letting her fight alone, especially when we still didn’t know the masked group’s true strength, wasn’t exactly the smartest choice.
Yet, I replied, “All right. You can handle this one alone.”
“R-really?”
“But if it looks dangerous, I’m stepping in immediately.”
Yurina proudly clenched her fist. “Hehe. Don’t worry. I’ve gotten a lot stronger.”
She immediately shrank her voice to a timid whisper. “A-and, if I do well, um, you’ll praise me again, right?”
I let out a small, helpless laugh at her shy question. “Yeah.”
I wondered if I should tell her the possibility that the masked freaks weren’t demons at all, but heroes. Ultimately, I shook the thought away after some hesitation. Telling her now would only distract her during the fight.
To heroes, demons weren’t just people of another race. They were akin to monsters, enemies that had to be cut down without hesitation or second thoughts. However, heroes were different. Fighting a monster disguised as a human was one thing, but fighting an actual human was another. For someone like Yurina, who still lacked real combat experience, it wasn’t even a question which would be harder.
Yurina looked at me and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
I deflected her question and turned my attention elsewhere. At that moment, soft footsteps echoed faintly from afar. They were quiet enough that an ordinary person would never notice them unless they focused, which showed that they were trained. However, they couldn’t fool Yurina or me.
“They’re coming.”
“There are three of them.”
The timid Yurina from moments ago vanished, and her eyes sharpened like a trained predator’s. Soon, three masked figures appeared at the end of the alley, one wearing the mask of a wolf, one that of a fox, and one that of a rabbit.
The one leading the group, the wolf-masked man, raised a hand. “Stop.”
Spotting us, he narrowed his eyes and quickly scanned the surroundings.
Just that glance was enough for him to realize they had walked straight into a trap. He clicked his tongue and immediately turned around. “Retreat.”
“And where do you think you’re going?” I muttered.
A wall of blazing Ashen Flames roared to life, swallowing the path behind them and cutting off their escape. The wolf-masked figure froze, staring at the burning wall of embers.
He turned his narrowed eyes toward me. “Who are you?”
“That’s what I should be asking.”
Our gazes crossed in the empty air.
The wolf-masked figure let out a deep, exhausted sigh and spoke in a voice as dry as desert sand. “There’s no need for conversation, then.”
He drew a massive greatsword from his back. Following his lead, the fox and rabbit-masked figures also pulled out their respective weapons.
“Good. That saves us time.”
***
Dale stepped back and glanced at Yurina.
She drew her sword from her hip, pointing it toward the masked figures. “Valhalla City is the city of heroes.”
A silver aura flared violently around her. “It’s no place for demons like you!”
With a boom, a flash of blinding silver light erupted. She dashed straight toward the wolf-masked figure and brought her sword down. The wolf-masked figure raised his greatsword just in time, blocking her strike.
In the span of a heartbeat, dozens of blows collided, with aura clashing against aura. The ground split apart, and the debris from the abandoned building scattered like snow.
The wolf-masked figure staggered back, grimacing. Yurina tried to press forward and slash him again. However, a burst of blue lightning surged toward her.
She turned her head and saw that the fox-masked figure was holding out a staff, aiming a spell at her. Yurina twisted her sword mid-swing, redirecting it toward the incoming bolts of lightning. She had used Sun Sword Style Fifth Form: Black Sunspot.
Her silver aura spiraled in a swirling circle, sucking the blue lightning into it and neutralizing it completely. Yurina narrowed her eyes at the wolf and fox-masked figures.
One’s a swordsman. The other’s a mage. She turned toward the rabbit-masked figure. Then the last one must be...
The rabbit-masked figure let out a bizarre shriek and hurled a cluster of needles from inside their sleeve. Dozens of needles shot toward Yurina. Their tips glistened, hinting that they were poisoned.
So, the last one’s an assassin type, Yurina thought.
She flicked her sword effortlessly, slicing all of the needles out of the air. However, she immediately sensed that something was off. A strange chill crawled down her spine. As though she were staring at a puzzle piece that didn’t fit anywhere, an inexplicable unease churned in her gut. Before she could identify the source of the unease, the wolf-masked figure’s greatsword swung toward her.
“Haaap!”
With a short shout, she deflected the greatsword and swept her gaze around. Among the three opponents before, she had to pick one. After deciding the first target, she kicked off the ground and dashed toward the rabbit-masked figure.
The rabbit-masked figure, who had been flinging projectiles from afar, drew a dagger. But Yurina abruptly changed direction, veering sharply toward the fox-masked figure.
The fox-masked figure’s eyes widened. “What?”
The fox-masked figure had been in the middle of casting a spell with her staff raised. She tried to stop casting and widen the distance, but she couldn’t react in time. Yurina’s sword pierced straight through her abdomen.
She collapsed, vomiting blood. “Ah! Ahh. I-It hurts.”
Blood gushed out around the sword impaling her stomach.
Yurina looked down at her with cold, emotionless eyes. “So, demons can feel pain too, huh?”
They were existences who had forsaken humanity to accept the Demon God’s power. They were not worth pity or mercy. They weren’t fellow humans. They were enemies who threatened humanity.
“P-please, spare me!”
Yurina glared at the fox-masked figure with pure disdain. “Hah. After you slaughtered the people in the slums so mercilessly, now you want to beg for your life?”
She had never spoken directly to many demons before, but she had grown up learning exactly what they were. Whether it was the Archbishop of Madness or the Archbishop of Desire, all of them took human lives without a second thought. They were villains; no, to be more accurate, they were devils. They were enemies that had to be eliminated for the sake of humanity’s future. That was what demons were.
Suddenly, with a thud, the fox mask slipped off and fell to the ground, revealing the bloodied face of a woman beneath. Her blue eyes, wet with tears, stared up at Yurina.
Yurina’s face froze. “Huh?”
One of the traits of demons was their eyes, which were red like blood. But that trait was nowhere to be seen in the face before her. The source of Yurina’s earlier unease and the puzzle piece that hadn’t fit were revealed all at once.
“Wait...”
Why didn’t they use dark mana at all?
That was the question she had been pondering while fighting. If they were demons, their mana should have been corrupted by the Demon God’s soul stigmata, and they should have used dark mana. But throughout the entire fight, they hadn’t used a single trace of it.
Yurina’s expression was completely drained of color. “They’re... not demons?”
The masked figures were not demons; they were heroes, just like she was. They were heroes, not demons. They were the same as she was, humans.
Yurina stumbled backward, mumbling in a trembling voice, “T-that... N-no. That can’t... They said, they said they were demons.”
The moment she realized the fox-masked figure wasn’t a demon, her mind went blank. Her hand holding the sword shook violently. She could vividly see the torn-open abdomen, the organs spilling out, the ruptured wound, the fading breaths, and the blood on her sword. There was blood everywhere.
“Ah!”
Yurina Helios had just experienced killing a human for the first time in her life.
